ALEX McLeish has drawn a line under the Kris Boyd saga for once and all.
A £3.8 million target of the Birmingham City manager, Boyd is unlikely to be heading south to St Andrew’s.
Despite another attempt to reach an agreement on personal terms, nothing could be arranged with the Rangers striker.
“It doesn’t look as if we will be taking it any further,” said McLeish.
“You never know, something can always happen in the January window, there’s a long way to go. But it doesn’t look as if anything will materialise.”
There were suggestions that the package would be ‘tweaked’, with more salary up front for Boyd, who stunned Blues initially by demanding in excess of £20,000-a-week.
“There was a willingness to look at creativity within the deal, as it already stood,” said McLeish. “We weren’t having to pay more money.
“Again, nothing’s happened so we don’t expect it to go further.”
McLeish has shown before that he is prepared to be patient and wait, but only for so long.
It was a similar story when he went for Celtic defender Bobo Balde and Kevin-Prince Boateng, the Tottenham Hotspur midfielder, in previous months.
Ultimately, he wants commitment from his players.
“Absolutely. I would always have to get a good feeling about a player.
“I know I have got a good rapport with Kris Boyd and I know he would like to play for me, and he has played well for me in the past.
“But if the circumstances are not right for him then we’ve got to move on.”
Among the other options is Real Betis forward Mariano Pavone.
Blues have been out to watch the Argentinian, who moved to Spain for 6.8?million euros two seasons ago from Estudiantes.
On Saturday Blues play Cardiff City at St Andrew’s when McLeish plans to rejig his team considerably.
Scott Sinclair, Lee Bowyer, Hameur Bouazza and Keith Fahey are all eligible and in line to make their debuts, in some capacity.
McLeish will, however, be without James McFadden again.
McFadden missed the FA Cup loss to Wolves on Tuesday and McLeish explained: “He has been struggling with his throat.
“Last week he had been training with a view to the Blackpool game, but it was called off unfortunately.
“He came in Sunday and complained that his throat had ‘closed’ again and he has not trained all this week.
“We sent him to a specialist on Thursday as the medicine he was on did not worked.
“The problem developed into an abscess in his throat, so he’s definitely out for the weekend.
“Fortunately the abscess – I’m talking horrible stuff here – disappeared. For the want of a better word, it burst. So he should be on the road to recovery at the start of next week.”
